The fashionable party put on by the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art each year has officially been postponed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced Monday that the annual Met gala, scheduled to take place on May 4, has been postponed indefinitely even after the Met Gala committee stood firm to proceed as planned despite concerns of the coronavirus pandemic.

This year marks a milestone for the Metropolitan Museum of Art as the New York institution will celebrate its 150th anniversary but fashion’s biggest night out is yet another victim of the coronavirus, as cultural institutions around the world continue to take the necessary drastic measures to try to slow the progress of this global pandemic.

The Met Gala 2020 theme is “About Time: Fashion and Duration,” and is inspired by Virginia Woolf and the theories of the French philosopher Henri Bergson. The show is chaired by head designer at Louis Vuitton, Nicolas Ghesquière; Emma Stone; Meryl Streep, who starred in The Hours, a story inspired by Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway; Lin-Manuel Miranda; and, as always, Vogue’s Anna Wintour. The show will explore the concept of “la dureé” – time that flows; the combination of past, present and future to provoke fashion charged issues and where the industry presently stands after years on the decline.

The industry has never fully recovered from the recession, prompting cost cuts in production and quality due to the consumer driven industry and the trend – “wear and toss.” The fashion industry and luxury compartment effected by this is seriously reconsidering its role in society. The corona virus prompted this action as a response to the crisis which will impact how we shop, small retailers and the industry worldwide. Sustainibilty seems to be the focus to relaunch the industry and ultimately save it.

Will the growing awareness of fashion’s impact on the environment and the importance of sustainability be more attentive to collective and environmental well-being?

“Fashion is indelibly connected to time. It not only reflects and represents the spirit of the times, but it also changes and develops with the times.” – Andrew Bolton. (Andrew Bolton is a British museum curator and current Head Curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York City. )